GVSHP has reached out to the new Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Chair and Mayor de Blasio to urge that they move on landmarking the third and final phase of GVSHP's proposed South Village Historic District -- the area south of Houston Street which the prior administration and LPC Chair refused to landmark. Landmarks designation of this historically rich neighborhood is supported by every local elected official representing the area, the local community board, and nearly every block or civic association and institution located there. In late 2013, GVSHP got this area and the rest of the South Village placed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, and in 2012 this and the rest of the South Village was named one of "Seven to Save" by the Preservation League of NY State -- one of the seven most endangered, historically significant sites in New York State.

This final section of the South Village is very much threatened; in just the last few years we have seen the demolition of historically significant early 19th century houses at 186 Spring Street and 54 MacDougal Street, one of New York's earliest Art Deco buildings, the Tunnel Garage, and a host of other 19th and early 20th century structures. We have also recently seen a huge spate of out-of-scale high-rise construction going up in this neighborhood, which is otherwise almost uniformly composed of three to six story buildings.